


Protege

by Overgrown_Druid



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Fluff, Gen, How Do I Tag, Sleepy Bois Inc as Family, The kids learn to fight, Tubbo's there too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28180782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Overgrown_Druid/pseuds/Overgrown_Druid
Summary: Philza, Wilbur, and Techno each had their own strengths and weaknesses. Philza was a great archer and redstone engineer, Wilbur was an amazing musician and geographer, and Techno was just short of a pvp god.Now, for the kids to learn what their brothers knew.*****Tubbo starts learning how to use a bow and Techno teaches Tommy how to fight.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 92





	Protege

Philza, Wilbur, and Techno each had their own strengths and weaknesses. Philza was a great archer and redstone engineer, Wilbur was an amazing musician and geographer, and Techno was just short of a pvp god. 

The younger boys liked their older brothers equally but they each had a special bond with one of them. Tommy’s brash and loud personality somehow matched up well with the mellow and calm Wilbur, who couldn’t teach him much since Tommy wasn’t interested in using words to try to settle disputes. He also tried teaching the younger boy how to read maps and how to recognize local dialects and what they were just based on the sound, but all the words and symbols just muddled the poor kid’s brain. 

(He had been able to teach Tubbo some of the basics though. The kid was like a sponge when it came to anything knowledge related.)

Tubbo took a liking to Phil and their relationship had such an age gap that it was more like father and son instead of brothers. Phil was the one who taught Tubbo how to use a bow and arrow when the kid was about eleven and a half. The younger boy was a natural. He would jump up as soon as Phil so much as mentioned going out hunting or to a bow range.

Phil had discovered that the boy did best with positive reinforcement and almost daily practice. He would go out after dinner every other night and shoot a few arrows. Sometimes a few of the others would go out and join him. They all knew how to shoot (in fact, they all knew all the basics of farming, pvp, brewing, etc. It was just required with the way they lived. Some of them were just better than the others in certain areas) but Phil and Tubbo could outshoot them all any day of the week.

Phil often thought that with a few more years of practice, Tubbo would be even better than him.

*****

Techno was surprised the day that Tommy came to him asking to be taught how to fight. Techno had agreed on the account of: ‘It’s about time he learned how to fight anyway.’

Tommy was twelve the first time he had his feet sweeped out from under him and told by Techno to fix his footing. 

It sure as hell wouldn’t be the last time either.

*****

Block. Push back. Jab. Get parried. Pull back. Control your breathing. Fix your footing. Step. Block. Parry.

Tommy had been locked in this duel with Techno for about five minutes now. This was the best he’d ever done and he was trying to hold off on the rejoicing until he was sure one of them had won. 

(A lesson he’d learned from Techno when he finally perfected a move and gave a victory woop in the middle of a match, only to be knocked down by Techno. “No rejoicing until the battle’s won.”)

He got in closer to Techno and, turning slightly to the side, jammed his shoulder into the older man's chest while his sword was near his side. Techno lost his balance and fell to the ground, spreading out his arms to catch himself so he wouldn’t hit his head on the ground. 

Tommy dropped his wooden sword and held up both arms, making a small victory noise. Then, he felt something hit his legs and he was on the ground next to Techno, barely managing to have fallen the way he was taught, as not to hurt his head. 

He turned his head to Techno. “W-what the hell was that, Blade?!” He said in between taking deep breaths.

Techno smiled, showing off his two sharp canine teeth. “An enemy’s always a threat, unless they’re dead.”

“So now I should be trying to kill you?”

“I’d say that knocking me out would be safer.” He said with an all too straight face.

“Phil won’t be too happy if he had to drag your unconscious body into the house.” Tommy shot back.

“Good thing you’ll never be able to knock me out then.” He said as he started to get up off the ground.

This retort made Tommy sit up straight and unleash a string of curses directed at his brother, who was barely paying attention anymore.

*****

Teaching someone was new to Techno. Tommy wasn’t like Tubbo, who thrived in positive environments with moderate encouragement. 

Tommy did best when Techno only spoke to him to comment on how to fix this or that. He didn’t handle compliments well, as all they did was make his ego bigger or make him increasingly frustrated as he thought they were a way for Techno to get a dig in at him for something he was doing wrong.

But the hardest part of teaching Tommy was their different styles.

Techno was an unmovable stone when he was fighting. He barely moved and when he did it was precise and calculating. Figuring out the weak spots in an enemy’s armor, a blindspot in their vision. People rarely noticed the still figure when they were fighting. It was like he was part of the scenery.

Tommy was not that. He wouldn’t stop jumping around. He would be constantly on the move, bouncing around in seemingly random patterns. It was hard to adjust to teaching Tommy because he wanted him to keep his original style. A new one would be difficult and tedious to learn, and besides, being on the move had its advantages. It was hard to hit a moving target. 

Once he complained to Phil about how Tommy wasn’t taking himself into regard when he fought. Phil asked how hard he was hitting him.

“What kind of question is that? I’m not hitting him hard or anything, I don’t want him to get hurt!”

“Then how will he learn? To him, a type of blocking technique might mean almost getting hit, but not actually getting hit, since you won’t hurt him. I’m not saying that you need to beat him up but jab him just enough so he develops some self preservation.”

The twelve and a half year old didn’t know that there was a word for it, but he developed a hardy amount of self preservation after that.

*****

Tubbo and Tommy never really got a chance to learn how good they actually were at their respective crafts.

The house they all lived in was a good distance away from the nearest village. TechnoBlade and Philza were usually the ones to go out and gather materials, while Wilbur kept the kids entertained and out of trouble at home. So they never got a chance to play fight with kids their age. All they knew were the adults who taught them, and who they could never beat (Tommy would come close to beating Techno on two occasions and after only three years of training, Tubbo became the best archer in the house). As a result, they never knew that they had the skill level of adults in their mid twenties.

Tommy and Tubbo had tried fighting each other a few times. It never really worked out though, as Tubbo’s bow was better for long range and Tommy’s sword was better for close up fighting. 

They’d go out to a patchy forest area and Tubbo would snipe Tommy from a tree using harmless arrows until Tommy would shake the tree hard enough that Tubbo would fall down (sometimes he wouldn’t even shake the tree he’d just jump really high and pull his best friend straight out of his little perch that he sat in).

They rapidly became bored of the game as all they had to do to get the upper hand was to get to where one or both of them were on the ground to win. 

That was, until their three brothers took them mob hunting for the first time when they were each thirteen and they realized that they were an amazing team when they worked together. 

*****

It was late at night, Tommy and Tubbo were in bed, and Wilbur was going through all the chests in the house looking for spiders' eyes. Phil had honestly forgotten what he had said he needed them for but he was adamant about getting them.

After rifling through the contents of the umpteenth chest, Wilbur officially declared that they were out of spider’s eyes, string, gunpowder, and that they were running low on ender pearls. 

“When was the last time we went mob hunting?” Techno asked from the couch, not even bothering to look up from his iron sword that he was cleaning.

“It has been awhile…” Wilbur replied. “I would say that you two can go while I make sure the gremlins don’t burn the whole place down, but I think it’s time we channel their destructive energy into something more productive.” He turned to Phil. “How’s Tubbo with the bow?” He asked.

“Amazing and growing better every day.” He replied, with more than a little pride in his voice.

“How’s Tommy coming along?” He asked Techno, turning to him.

The pink haired male shrugged, still not looking up from polishing his sword. “He won’t die.” The two others in the room looked at him. The prolonged silence finally got TechnoBlade to look up and meet the slightly judgemental glares of his brothers.

*****

It was decided and announced to the boys the next morning that they would be taking them mob hunting within two days.

Tubbo and Tommy were absolutely over the moon.

Two days later the older boys started grabbing weapons and armor and distributing them among everyone. Tommy and Tubbo got a few pieces of leather armor each since they weren’t used to the weight of normal armor and since it was all that would fit them.

Tubbo got a basic bow with a little under a stack of arrows and Tommy got an iron sword, which was a bit heavier than the stone sword he had been training with recently, but he was quick to adapt to the adjustment. 

Right before the sun started setting, they took the boys out a bit of a ways away to the edge of a nearby woods and set out some ground rules.

“Tubbo, make precise shots and pick up arrows when you can. Skeletons will sometimes drop arrows but be careful.” Phil said.

Wilbur nodded and looked at Tommy. “Don’t go off on your own, don’t get in over your head, and keep a distance from creepers. Tubbo can pick them off.”

“Don’t die.” Techno ran a hand through his short, undercut hair as he spoke. The boys weren’t sure if that was a nervous tick from letting them go mob hunting for the first time, or if he was just bored and wanted to get it all over with. The older male was hard to get a read on and the only emotion you’d ever be able to pick up from him was ‘tired’.

The rules established, they all went into the woods as the sun set.

They found a small, clear area surrounded by trees except for one side that faced the side of a small mountain. Phil climbed up the mountain side and found an area where he could sit and shoot mobs from up above. Tubbo climbed a tall tree and sat on one of the thicked limbs at the top, adjusting himself so that he could see everything going on down below and aid if needed.

Wilbur, Techno, and Tommy stood in the center of the clearing.

Soon enough they started to hear the rattling of skeleton bones and the moans of the undead. A zombie slowly started to make its way from the tree line to them. An arrow flew down from the mountain side and hit it square in the chest. The zombie was thrown slightly back for a second before it kept walking forward. Wilbur jumped forward and stabbed it. It fell to the ground in a heap of rotting flesh.

Wilbur looked at Tommy. “Just like that.” Tommy nodded.

*****

Hours later the little family reached their house, just as rays of early morning light started reaching the sky. They were covered in dirt, tired, hungry, and sweaty. They were each loaded down with items from the mobs they had killed.

Tubbo was the first to walk into the house. He hung his bow and his quiver with his left over arrows in a hook by the door and carefully removed his beaten leather armor as the others came in around him. Once he was just wearing the shirt and pants that were under his armor, he walked into the living room and collapsed on the largest of the two couches.

Tommy was a lot less careful. He dropped his sword and his bag to the ground as he came into the house behind everyone, took off his helmet and chest plate, tossed them to the ground, walked to the other couch, where he collapsed.

It didn’t take long for the boys to fall right to sleep.

Their three older brothers looked at them from the other side of the room and smiled.

Their family was small but it held a lot of love.


End file.
